"THE ULTIMATE GIVER OF LOVE"

Good Evening to All!

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God: and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (8) He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (9) In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. (10) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (12) No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. (13) By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

There are many ways to express love, the exchange of Christmas gifts, or Valentine Cards and candy being just a couple. While these express love in a fun and meaningful way, I must say that the true gift of love is better any packages tied up with pretty bows and ribbons or cards with cute sayings or pretty poems in them.

I heard several accounts of the beginning of "gift giving" particularly of Christmas gifts a quick explanation of those are: some people don't believe in celebrating Christmas because Jesus was not born on December 25. Others go as far as to say it's "paganism", but I have also heard that the giving of gifts was started because the wise men brought gifts to the Christ child. Now, out of all the things I have mentioned, I would come closer to agreeing with the last one. . . BUT, truly, the ORIGINAL One who started the giving of gifts out of love was God Himself. First He gave of Himself, because He left His wonderful kingdom of Glory to come to earth and walk among us sinners. He got hungry like we do, He got tired like we do, He went through the trials and tribulations like we do. He as a human had to endure more than we as humans did back then or do today. So He showed His love for us to do this. THEN on top of that He sacrificed His human body and His blood for our sins, just so we would be able to live in eternity with Him, (if we choose to follow Him). That was and is the ULTIMATE gift any one of us could ever receive. He said it Himself . (12) This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (13) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.The thing is, it doesn't stop there. He keeps on giving. His mercy is a gift to us. We do not deserve His mercy. Look at how we treat Him. we pay more attention to our pets than we do to Him. We might spend a couple of hours a couple of times a week in His House. Unless we have a true relationship with Him and actually realize how important He is to us, we don't spend Near enough time with Him.

God wants the giving of love to continue. As we share God's love, we are completing, or perfecting, god's will that we love others. We put God's love into action, and He responds by abiding, or living in us. Love creates an unending circle.

Anyone who is human has been hurt at one time or another. Whether it be by a loved one, a friend, even an employer. Humans will let you down at one time or another. They cannot help it. God, on the other hand will never let you down. Now, I will be honest, at times you may think he does or has, because "you didn't get what you asked for, or your prayers weren't answered". Let me say, the answer to the first comment is God knows what is best for you and if you are asking for something that will cause you harm or trouble down the road, then not getting it would be a good thing. The second thing is God answers ALL prayers. They again may not be the answer you want or are expecting. The answer might be NO, or wait a while, or you might get it, just not the way you think you should, but He will answer. We must remember God sees from the END TO THE BEGINNING. He has been to the future, so He knows what is going to happen and can keep you from making mistakes and having excess problems IF you will listen to Him. Listen to that little voice inside that says " you shouldn't go in debt right now", you shouldn't do this or that. If you will listen to that little voice your life will go a lot smoother (which would also be a gift from Him).

Sorry I got off on a rabbit trail. All these thoughts started flooding my brain

I know that loving someone who has wronged you is hard. Believe me I could be the "poster girl" for that. the thing is we must choose to let the bitterness go, before we can show true love to anyone. Bitterness is like a cancer. The longer you have it inside of you the more it grows.

If we will turn that bitterness energy into energy for loving God, and allow Him to work on our hearts His love will renew our love for others and help us to show love to others by putting the best interest of the other person not only as God's desire, but as our's as well.

When we develop a loving lasting relationship with God, His desires become our desires. We will want for ourselves what He wants for us, and His will will be our will.

A quick thought. I have had a lot of people comment to me about having to "give up so much" if they become a Christian, meaning partying, drinking, wearing "sexy clothes", and other things. The thing of it is, when you develop a soul search absolute love for God, your ideas of "entertainment, immodest clothing, drinking, and immorality aren't important to you anymore. They are replace instead by clean living, (no drinking or drugs), no immorality, modest dress, and many other things because God works on your heart and you WANT to change. No one twists your arm. You do it because when you study His Word and read these things that make God unhappy, you don't want to do them.

Well, so much for my "quick thought"! LOL! Now y'all understand why I don't get on Twitter much! LOL!

The answers for last night's Bible Challenge "Food and Drink" Part 2 are as follows:

1. b) Noah (Genesis 9:4)
2. b) Noah (Genesis 9:20-27)
3. d) fins and scales (Deuteronomy 14:9-10)
4. a) raven ( Deuteronomy 14:14)
5. False (Deuteronomy 14:19)
6. It was hallowed temple bread. (shew bread) (1 Samuel 21:1-6, Mark 2:25-26)
7. b) Solomon's (1 Kings 4:22-23)
8. c) salt (2 Kings 2:19-22)
9. d) honey (Ezekiel 2:8-2:2, Revelation 10:9-10)
10. False (there are no references to tomatoes in the Bible)

I hope you enjoyed this challenge and did well.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!